{"id":337946,"date":"2026-05-20T20:49:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=337946"},"modified":"2026-05-20T20:49:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:19:45","slug":"north-korea-women-win-rare-match-in-south-to-achieve-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/north-korea-women-win-rare-match-in-south-to-achieve-final\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea women win rare match in South to achieve final"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC players rejoice their victory after the AFC Women\u2019s Champions League semi-final football match between North Korea\u2019s Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC and South Korea\u2019s Suwon FC Women in Suwon on May 20, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je \/ AFP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

North Korea\u2019s first sports team to go to the South in eight years reached the Asian Women\u2019s Champions League final on Wednesday as Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC beat Suwon FC Women 2-1.<\/p>\n

Naegohyang got here from behind to defeat their rivals from the South amid torrential rain in Suwon, in a hard-fought semi-final played in a good spirit with none major flashpoints.<\/p>\n

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READ: North Korean football team ventures into South <\/strong><\/p>\n

Suwon captain Ji So-yun missed a penalty with just over 10 minutes to play.<\/p>\n

The North Koreans hugged one another and wept on the full-time whistle because the Suwon players slumped to the turf.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believed in our team\u2019s ability,\u201d said Naegohyang\u2019s Choe Kum Okay, who scored her team\u2019s equalizer within the second half. \u201cIf all of us stay united, neither the semi-final or final might be an issue for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North Koreans will stay within the South for Saturday\u2019s final, where they are going to tackle Japan\u2019s Tokyo Verdy Beleza at the identical stadium.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEvery player\u2019s role is essential, but things didn\u2019t go well for us in the primary half,\u201d said Choe. \u201cOnce we got into the second half, we found our rhythm and I believe the sport flowed a lot better for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interest within the rare North-South semi-final was intense, and seven,087 general admission tickets sold out inside hours of happening sale last week.<\/p>\n

A girl in her 70s who gave her surname as Lee told AFP before kick-off that she lived nearby and attended the match \u201choping to catch a glimpse of the North Korean players\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll cheer for each teams, although I\u2019m rooting barely more for the North since they travelled such a protracted technique to get here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bad weather meant half the seats within the roofless Suwon Sports Complex Stadium were empty.<\/p>\n

A big group of spectators from civic groups backed by Seoul\u2019s unification ministry was within the stadium to support each teams, although they were mostly silent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fast and fair<\/h2>\n
\"North\"North<\/p>\n

South and North Korean joint cheering squads react through the AFC Women\u2019s Champions League semifinal between North Korea\u2019s Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC and South Korea\u2019s Suwon FC in Suwon, South Korea, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Kim Sung-min\/Yonhap via AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Suwon fans banged drums and chanted for his or her team.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter whether the opposing team is from North Korea or some other country, we actually hope we win, make it to the ultimate, and show just how strong our women\u2019s football team is,\u201d said 29-year-old Suwon fan Kweon Yun-young.<\/p>\n

There have been no official away supporters because North Koreans are generally not allowed into the South, and the 2 countries have technically remained at war since 1950.<\/p>\n

The 2 teams had met within the group stage earlier within the competition, with Naegohyang winning 3-0.<\/p>\n

Former Chelsea midfielder Ji said Suwon were expecting the semi-final to be a tricky physical battle and were ready to provide pretty much as good as they got.<\/p>\n

The motion was fast and fair as each teams created early probabilities.<\/p>\n

Naegohyang had a goal ruled out for offside within the fifth minute, and Suwon\u2019s Japanese striker Haruhi Suzuki headed against the post midway through the primary half.<\/p>\n

Suzuki gave Suwon the lead within the forty ninth minute when she pounced on a probability with the Naegohyang defence hesitating.<\/p>\n

The North Koreans equalised six minutes later when Choe headed home from a free-kick.<\/p>\n

Prolific striker Kim Kyong Yong then gave Naegohyang the lead when she finished off a scrappy attack with a header within the 67th minute.<\/p>\n

Suwon were awarded a penalty after a VAR review, but Ji hit her spot kick wide with the goalkeeper diving the unsuitable way.<\/p>\n

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Tokyo beat Australia\u2019s Melbourne City 3-1 in the opposite semi-final earlier within the day.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC players rejoice their victory after the AFC Women\u2019s Champions League semi-final football match between North Korea\u2019s Naegohyang Women\u2019s FC and South Korea\u2019s Suwon FC Women in Suwon on May 20, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je \/ AFP) North Korea\u2019s first sports team to go to the South in eight years reached the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":337947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[1499,1804,2064,5172,1026,2571,3685,658,2746],"class_list":["post-337946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-final","tag-korea","tag-match","tag-north","tag-rare","tag-reach","tag-south","tag-win","tag-women"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337946"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337949,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337946\/revisions\/337949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}